Making Sure Death Is Fair
Growing concerns about making sure the innocent aren™t sentenced to death has caused more Americans to support a moratorium on the death penalty.
- Even though most Americans support the death penalty, there™s rising concern about how the state™s ultimate punishment is levied. A new poll by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that provides analysis on capital punishment, found that 58 percent want a national moratorium on executions. In 2006, there were fewer executions than in any year since the death penalty was reinstated over 30 years ago. NEWSWEEK™s Kurt Soller spoke with the director of the center, Richard Dieter, about the current state of capital punishment in America. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed want a moratorium in place. How surprising is that?
Richard Dieter: It is counterintuitive, given that the majority of people support the death penalty nationally [65 percent according to a 2006 Gallup poll]. But even in the South, where most executions occur, there is a willingness to stop executions. If you™re concerned about killing innocent people, you want something done. [According to DPIC research], 62 percent support a death penalty [as long as it is administered fairly and the innocent are adequately protected]. But people have concerns: innocence. They don™t believe it™s a deterrent. Unfairness.
What kind of unfairness?
There™s common agreement about who™s on death row: people who can™t afford their own lawyers, and a high percentage of minorities. The end result is dissatisfaction. Over two thirds [of the sample] felt these problems are not going to be eliminated through slight improvements. There™s distancing and skepticism”not yet total opposition [to the death penalty], but certainly concerns.
Support is waning and death sentences are decreasing. Is this a chicken-or-egg issue?
It™s being used less because of [the public's] concerns. Executions were rising throughout the 1990s up until 1999. There was every reason to believe, with 300 death sentences a year, executions would increase. The number of states that use the death penalty expanded. The federal death penalty expanded. But something happened around the late ™90s that brought numbers down. It was repeated revelations about mistakes”DNA cases about people walking off death row and into the arms of their families and lawyers. From almost being executed to free on the street”that story fills the John Grisham books and the TV shows and the movies. It™s not just actual cases that permeated the public™s consciousness. The death penalty became a little risky.
Wasn™t execution always risky?
There used to be a chance of executing an innocent person. But it was theoretical. Appeals were a year long”if that”and you were executed quickly. There was little science to turn something around. We™re in a different era now. We know 124 cases where people have been freed from death row. That™s enough to cause skepticism, and from 1999 on, you have a decline [in executions].
Is life without parole replacing the death penalty as the go-to option for murderers?
All states that have the death penalty have life without parole, with the exception of New Mexico. Texas [the state with the highest number of executions] was the most recent to adopt that law. Juries now get œdeath or life without parole? It used to be œlife or death? And don™t ask us what life means.
As time passes, what™s the generational element?
Students have debated and written about this issue. They know more about it. The newer generation is more skeptical about the necessity of the death penalty given its problems. It™s not that they™re more moral. It™s a factual problem.
But what if they end up on a jury? The study shows many people feel they™d be disqualified due to personal opposition.
They™re right. A recent Supreme Court decision [Uttecht v. Brown] broadened the chance to exclude people who have doubts about the death penalty. That™s a good ruling for the prosecution. But the more people excluded, the less democratic it is.
Is there a threat that the only people serving on juries are those who support the death penalty?
That™s where we are. Our poll indicates that it™s not just 1 or 2 percent who would refuse, but upward of 40 percent feel they would be excluded. It™s not a majority, but you™re supposed to be having a jury of your peers. It turns out that women, blacks and Catholics are more likely to be excluded from the jury. If the death penalty is not representative of minorities, then you have a democracy problem that makes it invalid. The more people that get excluded, the worse this problem gets. It™s a ticking time bomb.
The presidential candidates aren™t talking about it. What are the politics behind this?
Those who support the death penalty no longer can without being asked how many innocent people it would be acceptable to execute to uphold the penalty. Those kinds of questions don™t help a candidate. The anti-death-penalty candidate doesn™t want to bring it up. It™s not a winning issue. And the pro-death-penalty candidate now realizes it™s a multifaceted issue. It™s not a clear winner as it used to be when [Michael] Dukakis was faced with it.
Most of the candidates support the death penalty, at least in principal, on both sides. I don™t know that it is going to be an issue. It™s going to be a state change. You™re not going to see a Congress resolution or a Supreme Court decision or a president campaigning to get rid of it.
So how far are we from that national moratorium?
We™re still a ways away, even though the polls suggest it. It won™t happen nationally. Two thirds of this year™s executions have been in Texas [15 out of 22]. That™s not a national affirmation of the death penalty. Things are going to change on a state level. With juveniles, there were enough states that said, œWe don™t want to be part of this anymore. So the Supreme Court said, œIt seems to be unusual that we would execute juveniles. There seems to be a consensus against it, so it™s banned. It has become cruel and unusual. The public has to warm up to the idea [of banning the death penalty for adults, too]. And that™s what is starting to happen.
Wrongfully convicted of a crime thread
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Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
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Re: Wrongfully convicted of a crime thread
Man freed after DNA testing in children's murder case may still face charges
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — For the last month and a half, Byron Halsey has been trying to piece his life back together after serving the last two decades in prison for the rape and murder of two children.
Prosecutors threw out his conviction after recent DNA testing and he was freed, but he's been living in a limbo-like state since.
He's moved to Newark and found a job with a sign company, established himself with a church and met with social workers to help him adjust to his new life since the dramatic day in May when he walked out of prison.
Halsey is not quite a free man yet, however, because he still faces charges including murder, sexual assault and child abuse. Union County prosecutors were scheduled to announce Monday if they will pursue a new trial or drop the charges.
"He wants his freedom back," said Vanessa Potkin, a lawyer with the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University.
Eileen Walsh, a spokeswoman for the Union County prosecutor's office, declined to comment about what prosecutors will do.
Halsey, 46, has been trying to move forward, Potkin said.
"He's pretty much jumped back into things and immediately started working and piece by piece rebuilding his life," she said. "The process is extremely grueling."
Superior Court Judge Stuart L. Peim vacated Halsey's conviction on May 15 and granted a new trial because the new evidence "would probably change the verdict."
"I wasn't going to let anybody take my life," Halsey said in May after walking out of prison. "I wasn't going to give up."
Union County prosecutors and lawyers for Halsey together requested that the conviction be overturned.
Halsey was convicted in 1988 of murdering and sexually assaulting Tyrone and Tina Urquhart, the children of his girlfriend, with whom he lived at a Plainfield rooming house.
The bodies of Tyrone, 8, and Tina, 7, were found in the home's basement in November 1985.
The new DNA test showed that a neighbor in the rooming house, Clifton Hall, was the source of semen recovered at the scene and may have been responsible for the crimes, said Eric Ferrero, a spokesman for the Innocence Project, which is representing Halsey.
Hall, 49, has now been charged with two counts of murder and one count of aggravated sexual assault, Walsh said. He is being held at a prison for sex offenders because of three sex crimes convictions in the 1990s.
At trial, Halsey faced the death penalty, but the jury opted for life in prison, prompting jeering in the courtroom, Ferrero said. Halsey was sentenced to two life terms, plus 20 years.
Halsey had made a confession before trial, but Innocence Project co-director Barry Scheck said the statement followed 30 hours of interrogation over a 40-hour period.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — For the last month and a half, Byron Halsey has been trying to piece his life back together after serving the last two decades in prison for the rape and murder of two children.
Prosecutors threw out his conviction after recent DNA testing and he was freed, but he's been living in a limbo-like state since.
He's moved to Newark and found a job with a sign company, established himself with a church and met with social workers to help him adjust to his new life since the dramatic day in May when he walked out of prison.
Halsey is not quite a free man yet, however, because he still faces charges including murder, sexual assault and child abuse. Union County prosecutors were scheduled to announce Monday if they will pursue a new trial or drop the charges.
"He wants his freedom back," said Vanessa Potkin, a lawyer with the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University.
Eileen Walsh, a spokeswoman for the Union County prosecutor's office, declined to comment about what prosecutors will do.
Halsey, 46, has been trying to move forward, Potkin said.
"He's pretty much jumped back into things and immediately started working and piece by piece rebuilding his life," she said. "The process is extremely grueling."
Superior Court Judge Stuart L. Peim vacated Halsey's conviction on May 15 and granted a new trial because the new evidence "would probably change the verdict."
"I wasn't going to let anybody take my life," Halsey said in May after walking out of prison. "I wasn't going to give up."
Union County prosecutors and lawyers for Halsey together requested that the conviction be overturned.
Halsey was convicted in 1988 of murdering and sexually assaulting Tyrone and Tina Urquhart, the children of his girlfriend, with whom he lived at a Plainfield rooming house.
The bodies of Tyrone, 8, and Tina, 7, were found in the home's basement in November 1985.
The new DNA test showed that a neighbor in the rooming house, Clifton Hall, was the source of semen recovered at the scene and may have been responsible for the crimes, said Eric Ferrero, a spokesman for the Innocence Project, which is representing Halsey.
Hall, 49, has now been charged with two counts of murder and one count of aggravated sexual assault, Walsh said. He is being held at a prison for sex offenders because of three sex crimes convictions in the 1990s.
At trial, Halsey faced the death penalty, but the jury opted for life in prison, prompting jeering in the courtroom, Ferrero said. Halsey was sentenced to two life terms, plus 20 years.
Halsey had made a confession before trial, but Innocence Project co-director Barry Scheck said the statement followed 30 hours of interrogation over a 40-hour period.
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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Re: Wrongfully convicted of a crime thread
U.S. must pay $101.7 million to men framed by FBI
BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- A federal judge Thursday ordered the government to pay more than $101 million in the case of four men who spent decades in prison for a 1965 murder they didn't commit after the FBI withheld evidence of their innocence.
Peter Limone, right, and Joseph Salvati embrace after they were awarded a $101.7 million settlement.
1 of 2 The FBI encouraged perjury, helped frame the four men and withheld for more than three decades information that could have cleared them, U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner said in issuing her ruling Thursday.
She called the government's argument that the FBI had no duty to get involved in the state case "absurd."
Peter Limone, Joseph Salvati and the families of the two other men who died in prison had sued the federal government for malicious prosecution.
They argued that Boston FBI agents knew mob hitman Joseph "the Animal" Barboza lied when he named the men as killers in the 1965 death of Edward Deegan. They said Barboza was protecting a fellow FBI informant, Vincent "Jimmy" Flemmi, who was involved.
The four men convicted on Barboza's lies were treated as "acceptable collateral damage" because the FBI's priority at the time was taking down the Mafia, their attorneys said.
A Justice Department lawyer had argued that federal authorities couldn't be held responsible for the results of a state prosecution and had no duty to share information with the officials who prosecuted Limone, Salvati, Henry Tameleo and Louis Greco.
"The FBI's misconduct was clearly the sole cause of this conviction," the judge said Thursday. "The government's position is, in a word, absurd."
"No lost liberty is dispensable. We have fought wars over this principle. We are still fighting these wars," Gertner told the packed courtroom.
Salvati and Limone were exonerated in 2001 after FBI memos dating back to the Deegan case surfaced, showing the men had been framed by Barboza. The memos were made public during a Justice Department task force probe of the FBI's relationship with gangsters and FBI informants James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "the Rifleman" Flemmi.
Limone, now 73, and Salvati, 75, stared straight ahead as the judge announced her ruling. A gasp could be heard from the area where their friends and family were sitting when Gertner said how much the government would be forced to pay.
The men's attorneys had not asked for a specific amount in damages, but in court documents they cited other wrongful conviction cases in which $1 million was awarded for every year of imprisonment. Gertner ordered the government to pay $101.7 million.
"Do I want the money? Yes, I want my children, my grandchildren to have things I didn't have, but nothing can compensate for what they've done," Salvati said.
Salvati had been sentenced to life in prison as an accessory to murder and served more than 29 years before his sentence was commuted in 1997.
"It's been a long time coming," said Limone, who served 33 years in prison before he was freed in 2001. "What I've been through -- I hope it never happens to anyone else."
Justice Department attorney Bridget Bailey Lipscomb declined immediate comment on the ruling.
BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- A federal judge Thursday ordered the government to pay more than $101 million in the case of four men who spent decades in prison for a 1965 murder they didn't commit after the FBI withheld evidence of their innocence.
Peter Limone, right, and Joseph Salvati embrace after they were awarded a $101.7 million settlement.
1 of 2 The FBI encouraged perjury, helped frame the four men and withheld for more than three decades information that could have cleared them, U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner said in issuing her ruling Thursday.
She called the government's argument that the FBI had no duty to get involved in the state case "absurd."
Peter Limone, Joseph Salvati and the families of the two other men who died in prison had sued the federal government for malicious prosecution.
They argued that Boston FBI agents knew mob hitman Joseph "the Animal" Barboza lied when he named the men as killers in the 1965 death of Edward Deegan. They said Barboza was protecting a fellow FBI informant, Vincent "Jimmy" Flemmi, who was involved.
The four men convicted on Barboza's lies were treated as "acceptable collateral damage" because the FBI's priority at the time was taking down the Mafia, their attorneys said.
A Justice Department lawyer had argued that federal authorities couldn't be held responsible for the results of a state prosecution and had no duty to share information with the officials who prosecuted Limone, Salvati, Henry Tameleo and Louis Greco.
"The FBI's misconduct was clearly the sole cause of this conviction," the judge said Thursday. "The government's position is, in a word, absurd."
"No lost liberty is dispensable. We have fought wars over this principle. We are still fighting these wars," Gertner told the packed courtroom.
Salvati and Limone were exonerated in 2001 after FBI memos dating back to the Deegan case surfaced, showing the men had been framed by Barboza. The memos were made public during a Justice Department task force probe of the FBI's relationship with gangsters and FBI informants James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "the Rifleman" Flemmi.
Limone, now 73, and Salvati, 75, stared straight ahead as the judge announced her ruling. A gasp could be heard from the area where their friends and family were sitting when Gertner said how much the government would be forced to pay.
The men's attorneys had not asked for a specific amount in damages, but in court documents they cited other wrongful conviction cases in which $1 million was awarded for every year of imprisonment. Gertner ordered the government to pay $101.7 million.
"Do I want the money? Yes, I want my children, my grandchildren to have things I didn't have, but nothing can compensate for what they've done," Salvati said.
Salvati had been sentenced to life in prison as an accessory to murder and served more than 29 years before his sentence was commuted in 1997.
"It's been a long time coming," said Limone, who served 33 years in prison before he was freed in 2001. "What I've been through -- I hope it never happens to anyone else."
Justice Department attorney Bridget Bailey Lipscomb declined immediate comment on the ruling.
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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Re: Wrongfully convicted of a crime thread
Prosecutor apologizes 12 years after bogus rape verdict
HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- A man who spent a dozen years in prison for a rape he didn't commit was freed Tuesday, the third inmate to be released because of problems with the Houston Police Department's crime lab.
Ronald Taylor laughs at a guard joking Friday about him getting a cheeseburger and milkshake upon his release.
1 of 2 Wearing dark clothes and carrying a red mesh gym bag and a paper sack containing his belongings, Ronald Taylor greeted his family with warm embraces outside the Harris County Jail.
"It hasn't really sunk in. I'm just glad to see my family," he said.
His plans included eating shrimp, a delicacy he missed in prison, and moving to Atlanta to marry Jeannette Brown, the fiancee who has waited for him since the mid-1990s.
But his first stop was City Hall, where Taylor, 47, urged the City Council to prevent other innocent prisoners from rotting behind bars.
"They don't have the finances. They don't have nobody to help them," he said. "I think something needs to be done about that."
Houston officials have been struggling to fix the crime lab for years. An independent audit in 2002 raised concerns about DNA analysis procedures. In June, a former U.S. Justice Department inspector hired by the city cited hundreds of "serious and pervasive" flaws in forensic cases handled by the lab.
Taylor was convicted of rape in 1995 and sentenced to 60 years in prison. The victim picked him out of a lineup but acknowledged she only caught a glimpse of her attacker's face.
During his trial, a crime lab analyst testified that no body fluids were found on the victim's bedsheet. This summer, the Innocence Project paid to have a New Orleans lab retest the bedsheet. Semen that lab found matched the DNA of a man already in prison.
Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal apologized to Taylor in court Tuesday, and several council members echoed his regret.
Taylor and his mother, Dorothy Henderson, a food-services supervisor at the Walker County Jail, said they didn't blame the criminal justice system for his imprisonment.
"We've just been praying and I just had faith and I knew, I knew within my heart that one day he would get out," Henderson said.
HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- A man who spent a dozen years in prison for a rape he didn't commit was freed Tuesday, the third inmate to be released because of problems with the Houston Police Department's crime lab.
Ronald Taylor laughs at a guard joking Friday about him getting a cheeseburger and milkshake upon his release.
1 of 2 Wearing dark clothes and carrying a red mesh gym bag and a paper sack containing his belongings, Ronald Taylor greeted his family with warm embraces outside the Harris County Jail.
"It hasn't really sunk in. I'm just glad to see my family," he said.
His plans included eating shrimp, a delicacy he missed in prison, and moving to Atlanta to marry Jeannette Brown, the fiancee who has waited for him since the mid-1990s.
But his first stop was City Hall, where Taylor, 47, urged the City Council to prevent other innocent prisoners from rotting behind bars.
"They don't have the finances. They don't have nobody to help them," he said. "I think something needs to be done about that."
Houston officials have been struggling to fix the crime lab for years. An independent audit in 2002 raised concerns about DNA analysis procedures. In June, a former U.S. Justice Department inspector hired by the city cited hundreds of "serious and pervasive" flaws in forensic cases handled by the lab.
Taylor was convicted of rape in 1995 and sentenced to 60 years in prison. The victim picked him out of a lineup but acknowledged she only caught a glimpse of her attacker's face.
During his trial, a crime lab analyst testified that no body fluids were found on the victim's bedsheet. This summer, the Innocence Project paid to have a New Orleans lab retest the bedsheet. Semen that lab found matched the DNA of a man already in prison.
Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal apologized to Taylor in court Tuesday, and several council members echoed his regret.
Taylor and his mother, Dorothy Henderson, a food-services supervisor at the Walker County Jail, said they didn't blame the criminal justice system for his imprisonment.
"We've just been praying and I just had faith and I knew, I knew within my heart that one day he would get out," Henderson said.
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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Re: Wrongfully convicted of a crime thread
Innocent man shares his 20-year struggle behind bars
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Willie "Pete" Williams had no idea when he was pulled over by police that the criminal justice system was about to steal away half his life.
Willie "Pete" Williams, 45, spent half of his life behind bars for a 1985 rape he did not commit.
1 of 3 Sitting in the flashing glow of Atlanta squad car lights along Georgia State Road 400, the 23-year-old part-time house painter didn't know police were looking for a rapist who had struck nearby three weeks earlier.
Police questioned -- and then arrested Williams, triggering a series of mistaken witness identifications that led to his unjust conviction for rape, kidnapping and aggravated sodomy.
It was 1985 and Williams was sentenced to serve 45 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. "I felt betrayed. ... I felt like these people had taken my life for something I didn't do. I felt like I was being treated unfairly. ... I felt very, very angry towards everybody," said Williams last week, a free man after nearly 22 years behind bars.
He said he spent many of those years stoking that anger by fighting guards and inmates, while his childhood friends were developing careers and raising families. Watch Williams offer more details about his prison nightmare »
Earlier this year, after DNA science proved his innocence, the 45-year-old with a graying mustache stood again before a judge -- who this time exonerated Williams.
Williams' troubling story provokes discomfort in a nation that prides itself on a justice system where the accused are innocent until proven guilty. So far, DNA evidence has directly exonerated 208 wrongly convicted people in the United States, according to the Innocence Project. It's unknown how many prisoners now locked up in American jails could be freed by new testing of DNA evidence.
A jury of Williams' peers convicted him in the April 5, 1985, rape, kidnapping and aggravated sodomy of a woman in Atlanta's Sandy Springs neighborhood.
The victim told police her attacker first approached her to ask if she could help him find someone named Paul. Then he produced a gun and forced her into her car, according to police. They then drove to a dead-end street where the assault occurred.
Because the science behind each person's unique DNA signature was new to police in 1985, the key evidence that sealed Williams' fate was the testimony of three eyewitnesses who mistakenly said they recognized him.
"Mistaken eyewitness identification has long been the single biggest factor in the conviction of innocents," said Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project.
"That has got to be important to everybody, because if we can reform identification procedures, it will keep more innocent people out of jail and convict criminals who really commit the crimes."
As a new prisoner Williams said he fought a painful struggle against the raw deal the world had dealt him. When board members denied him parole the first of three times Williams said, "they had to escort me to 'the hole' [solitary confinement]."
"I couldn't function out there around the other inmates," Williams said. "I was mad, I was bitter. I felt the whole world just gave me up."
It wasn't until 1997 -- more than a decade after he was locked away -- that Williams' own voice freed him from the grip of his anger. At Valdosta State Prison, a close friend named Charlie Brown helped him join a Christian choir -- leading him to accept Jesus.
"Singing was like being out here, in a sense. It freed me from all the things, from all the fights, from the officers who were cruel, prison, stabbings," said Williams, who especially embraced the hymn "Amazing Grace."
After singing got a hold of Williams, he said the hardest part of his heart started to dissolve.
"I didn't feel angry anymore -- or any hate."
To prevent more tragedies like Williams', innocence projects in many states, including Georgia, have begun pressing lawmakers to adopt special witness ID procedures called sequential double-blind lineups. Such lineups are administrated by officials who don't know who the suspect is and present each member of a lineup one-by-one instead of simultaneously.
Witnesses who see several potential suspects simultaneously are more likely to choose a person who looks most like the perpetrator -- but who may not actually be the perpetrator, according to the Innocence Project. The group also cites research that says misidentification is reduced if the person overseeing the lineup is "blind" to which person in the lineup is the suspect.
Georgia's Legislature held hearings Monday in Atlanta to study the research and the proposed standards, which have been adopted by New Jersey and jurisdictions in Minnesota, California and elsewhere.
Louis M. Dekmar, vice chair of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies is skeptical of the research, but said the issue deserves further study.
"I don't believe the research is so compelling that we need to make swings and changes that don't bode well for criminal investigations and the criminal justice process," said Dekmar, a 30-year law enforcement veteran and chief of police for LaGrange, Georgia.
Dekmar argues investigators should be allowed to administer lineups to gauge reaction while they look at witness faces, to see if a witness is "stressed, weeping, nervous -- all those reactions that help detectives formulate whether this is a strong identification or a weak identification."
Williams was convicted on the identification of three witnesses who first singled him out from a photo lineup, according to the Georgia Innocence Project.
More than 20 years later, Innocence Project attorneys arranged to compare Williams' DNA with DNA evidence collected from the 1985 rape. It was not a match, proving that Williams was not the attacker and opening the door to his release.
Shortly after Williams' exoneration, DNA science again played a role in the case when a genetic match resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of Kenneth G. Wicker for the crime that Williams had been wrongly convicted of. Years earlier Wicker had served four years in prison for another rape and two attempted sexual assaults, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
As Scheck's Innocence Project marks its 15th year, the 1995 O.J. Simpson defense attorney describes it as a movement for criminal justice as well as human rights.
"I think that it's going to be remembered for getting innocents out of jail, but also for changing the paradigm in the criminal justice system," said Scheck.
"There is a greater understanding now that sound scientific and critical research can go a long way toward proving injustice and prosecuting the guilty."
Sometimes an Innocence Project client is confirmed to be guilty by DNA evidence, but the group doesn't make the number of those cases available. Theoretically, If key DNA material in a case is properly preserved, there's no time limit on revisiting old cases, according to the Innocence Project.
Critics accuse the group of denying closure to communities and victims' families by giving new life to old cases. To that, project spokesman Eric Ferrero said, "Victims are not served by the wrong people being convicted."
Perhaps the most important victory for the project has been its role in sparing the lives of 15 people condemned to death. In 2000, 13 condemned prisoners were exonerated by a group of Northwestern University students affiliated with the Innocence Project.
Some of the innocent prisoners were freed through DNA testing, others were exonerated after new trials were ordered by appellate courts.
Those spared lives prompted then-Illinois Gov. George Ryan to declare a state moratorium on all executions and later, a blanket clemency of all 167 death row prisoners.
The moratorium remains in effect while Illinois authorities consider proposed reforms to the system.
Back in Georgia, during the ten months since Williams' friends and family welcomed him home with hugs and kisses, he's been taking his time rejoining society, attending electronics classes and dealing with his top complaint: 21st century traffic.
Williams has found a home in a church congregation and plans to join its choir, holding on to the spiritual anchor he formed in prison.
Money is tight for Williams, and, according to the Innocence Project, only 45 percent of those exonerated by DNA evidence have been financially compensated. He expects some compensation from Georgia, although the state has no law guiding such cases.
Regaining his freedom has renewed Williams' belief in the power of prayer, but he said it has done little to repair his faith in the nation's justice system. He wonders how many other Americans are still suffering injustices like his own.
"When I see someone on television when they say, 'this is a suspect,' I have a difficult time believing that that actually is a suspect," Williams said.
"That's how I'm affected now."
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Willie "Pete" Williams had no idea when he was pulled over by police that the criminal justice system was about to steal away half his life.
Willie "Pete" Williams, 45, spent half of his life behind bars for a 1985 rape he did not commit.
1 of 3 Sitting in the flashing glow of Atlanta squad car lights along Georgia State Road 400, the 23-year-old part-time house painter didn't know police were looking for a rapist who had struck nearby three weeks earlier.
Police questioned -- and then arrested Williams, triggering a series of mistaken witness identifications that led to his unjust conviction for rape, kidnapping and aggravated sodomy.
It was 1985 and Williams was sentenced to serve 45 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. "I felt betrayed. ... I felt like these people had taken my life for something I didn't do. I felt like I was being treated unfairly. ... I felt very, very angry towards everybody," said Williams last week, a free man after nearly 22 years behind bars.
He said he spent many of those years stoking that anger by fighting guards and inmates, while his childhood friends were developing careers and raising families. Watch Williams offer more details about his prison nightmare »
Earlier this year, after DNA science proved his innocence, the 45-year-old with a graying mustache stood again before a judge -- who this time exonerated Williams.
Williams' troubling story provokes discomfort in a nation that prides itself on a justice system where the accused are innocent until proven guilty. So far, DNA evidence has directly exonerated 208 wrongly convicted people in the United States, according to the Innocence Project. It's unknown how many prisoners now locked up in American jails could be freed by new testing of DNA evidence.
A jury of Williams' peers convicted him in the April 5, 1985, rape, kidnapping and aggravated sodomy of a woman in Atlanta's Sandy Springs neighborhood.
The victim told police her attacker first approached her to ask if she could help him find someone named Paul. Then he produced a gun and forced her into her car, according to police. They then drove to a dead-end street where the assault occurred.
Because the science behind each person's unique DNA signature was new to police in 1985, the key evidence that sealed Williams' fate was the testimony of three eyewitnesses who mistakenly said they recognized him.
"Mistaken eyewitness identification has long been the single biggest factor in the conviction of innocents," said Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project.
"That has got to be important to everybody, because if we can reform identification procedures, it will keep more innocent people out of jail and convict criminals who really commit the crimes."
As a new prisoner Williams said he fought a painful struggle against the raw deal the world had dealt him. When board members denied him parole the first of three times Williams said, "they had to escort me to 'the hole' [solitary confinement]."
"I couldn't function out there around the other inmates," Williams said. "I was mad, I was bitter. I felt the whole world just gave me up."
It wasn't until 1997 -- more than a decade after he was locked away -- that Williams' own voice freed him from the grip of his anger. At Valdosta State Prison, a close friend named Charlie Brown helped him join a Christian choir -- leading him to accept Jesus.
"Singing was like being out here, in a sense. It freed me from all the things, from all the fights, from the officers who were cruel, prison, stabbings," said Williams, who especially embraced the hymn "Amazing Grace."
After singing got a hold of Williams, he said the hardest part of his heart started to dissolve.
"I didn't feel angry anymore -- or any hate."
To prevent more tragedies like Williams', innocence projects in many states, including Georgia, have begun pressing lawmakers to adopt special witness ID procedures called sequential double-blind lineups. Such lineups are administrated by officials who don't know who the suspect is and present each member of a lineup one-by-one instead of simultaneously.
Witnesses who see several potential suspects simultaneously are more likely to choose a person who looks most like the perpetrator -- but who may not actually be the perpetrator, according to the Innocence Project. The group also cites research that says misidentification is reduced if the person overseeing the lineup is "blind" to which person in the lineup is the suspect.
Georgia's Legislature held hearings Monday in Atlanta to study the research and the proposed standards, which have been adopted by New Jersey and jurisdictions in Minnesota, California and elsewhere.
Louis M. Dekmar, vice chair of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies is skeptical of the research, but said the issue deserves further study.
"I don't believe the research is so compelling that we need to make swings and changes that don't bode well for criminal investigations and the criminal justice process," said Dekmar, a 30-year law enforcement veteran and chief of police for LaGrange, Georgia.
Dekmar argues investigators should be allowed to administer lineups to gauge reaction while they look at witness faces, to see if a witness is "stressed, weeping, nervous -- all those reactions that help detectives formulate whether this is a strong identification or a weak identification."
Williams was convicted on the identification of three witnesses who first singled him out from a photo lineup, according to the Georgia Innocence Project.
More than 20 years later, Innocence Project attorneys arranged to compare Williams' DNA with DNA evidence collected from the 1985 rape. It was not a match, proving that Williams was not the attacker and opening the door to his release.
Shortly after Williams' exoneration, DNA science again played a role in the case when a genetic match resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of Kenneth G. Wicker for the crime that Williams had been wrongly convicted of. Years earlier Wicker had served four years in prison for another rape and two attempted sexual assaults, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
As Scheck's Innocence Project marks its 15th year, the 1995 O.J. Simpson defense attorney describes it as a movement for criminal justice as well as human rights.
"I think that it's going to be remembered for getting innocents out of jail, but also for changing the paradigm in the criminal justice system," said Scheck.
"There is a greater understanding now that sound scientific and critical research can go a long way toward proving injustice and prosecuting the guilty."
Sometimes an Innocence Project client is confirmed to be guilty by DNA evidence, but the group doesn't make the number of those cases available. Theoretically, If key DNA material in a case is properly preserved, there's no time limit on revisiting old cases, according to the Innocence Project.
Critics accuse the group of denying closure to communities and victims' families by giving new life to old cases. To that, project spokesman Eric Ferrero said, "Victims are not served by the wrong people being convicted."
Perhaps the most important victory for the project has been its role in sparing the lives of 15 people condemned to death. In 2000, 13 condemned prisoners were exonerated by a group of Northwestern University students affiliated with the Innocence Project.
Some of the innocent prisoners were freed through DNA testing, others were exonerated after new trials were ordered by appellate courts.
Those spared lives prompted then-Illinois Gov. George Ryan to declare a state moratorium on all executions and later, a blanket clemency of all 167 death row prisoners.
The moratorium remains in effect while Illinois authorities consider proposed reforms to the system.
Back in Georgia, during the ten months since Williams' friends and family welcomed him home with hugs and kisses, he's been taking his time rejoining society, attending electronics classes and dealing with his top complaint: 21st century traffic.
Williams has found a home in a church congregation and plans to join its choir, holding on to the spiritual anchor he formed in prison.
Money is tight for Williams, and, according to the Innocence Project, only 45 percent of those exonerated by DNA evidence have been financially compensated. He expects some compensation from Georgia, although the state has no law guiding such cases.
Regaining his freedom has renewed Williams' belief in the power of prayer, but he said it has done little to repair his faith in the nation's justice system. He wonders how many other Americans are still suffering injustices like his own.
"When I see someone on television when they say, 'this is a suspect,' I have a difficult time believing that that actually is a suspect," Williams said.
"That's how I'm affected now."
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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Re: Wrongfully convicted of a crime thread
DNA frees mother convicted of killing daughter
For 13 years, Lynn DeJac insisted she did not strangle and kill her 13-year-old daughter, even though a jury found her guilty.
On Wednesday, DeJac walked out of an Erie County, N.Y., courthouse a free woman after a judge overturned her conviction based on new DNA evidence implicating her former boyfriend in the killing.
A judge's decision to vacate the verdict and order a new trial made her the first woman in the U.S. to have a murder conviction overturned on the basis of DNA evidence.
When Judge John Michalski ordered DeJac, 44, released on her own recognizance, she broke down in tears.
Michalski's order was greeted with applause by the people gathered in the courtroom.
DeJac was convicted in 1994 of second-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Crystallin Girard, on Feb. 14, 1993, whom she said she found dead after a night spent drinking and barhopping in Buffalo.
DeJac maintained that she had gotten into a fight with her then-boyfriend, Dennis Donahue, after trying to break up with him the night before, according to her police statement. She said that, when she called police on Feb. 13 to complain that Donahue would not leave her home, he slapped the phone away from her.
After that, Donahue followed DeJac to several bars, and their conversation eventually turned violent, according to court documents.
Andrew LoTempio, DeJac's lawyer, told CourtTVnews.com that Donahue spent the night "stalking" DeJac, trying to force her to talk to him. DeJac told police that one day before her daughter's murder Donahue had an argument with the girl.
DeJac also told detectives that Donahue became violent that night when she refused to speak to him. She said he pulled a pocketknife on a man with whom she was flirting.
When DeJac checked on Crystallin Girard at about 5 a.m. on Feb. 14 before leaving for the home of a man she had met that night, the girl was alive, DeJac told police.
But when she returned home shortly before noon, she said she found the outside kitchen door open and her daughter naked and dead in her bedroom.
LoTempio said he always believed Donahue killed Crystallin, but he didn't get the break he needed until September, when he saw a news report that Donahue had been arrested in the slaying of another Buffalo woman he had dated.
Because of the similarities in the killings, LoTempio immediately asked the Buffalo cold case squad to reexamine the evidence in Crystallin's murder.
DNA tests — which were not available in 1994, when DeJac was tried — found a man's DNA in blood smears on the wall and bedding in Crystallin's bedroom. DNA was also found inside her vagina.
Though cold-case detectives now say they believe Donahue is responsible for the murder, he cannot be charged because he received immunity for his testimony against DeJac.
Much of the prosecution's case against DeJac focused on the testimony of neighbors who portrayed her as a promiscuous woman and bad mother who often left her child alone.
"She's not going to win the Good Housekeeping seal of approval or mother of the year, but that doesn't make her a killer," LoTempio said.
Erie County Prosecutor Frank Clark said he plans to retry DeJac on a charge of second-degree manslaughter. If DeJac is convicted, she would not return to prison, because she has already served the maximum sentence for that charge.
"The question of guilt or innocence hasn't been answered," Clark said during a press conference Wednesday. "That's why we have trials."
LoTempio said he believes a new jury would find her not guilty based on the new evidence. He added that, although DeJac could plead guilty to avoid another trial, she won't do that.
"She wants vindication. She wants someone to say she didn't do this," LoTempio said. "But if she loses, she's in no better or worse shape than she is now, because she can't go back to jail."
After leaving the courthouse Wednesday, DeJac told reporters she planned to visit her daughter's grave.
She also will need to reconnect with her two sons, who were born during her first year in prison, and the rest of her family. She has never met her grandchildren or her first son's wife.
"I just want to go and be with my family and try to make up for some of the time that was lost," she said.
For 13 years, Lynn DeJac insisted she did not strangle and kill her 13-year-old daughter, even though a jury found her guilty.
On Wednesday, DeJac walked out of an Erie County, N.Y., courthouse a free woman after a judge overturned her conviction based on new DNA evidence implicating her former boyfriend in the killing.
A judge's decision to vacate the verdict and order a new trial made her the first woman in the U.S. to have a murder conviction overturned on the basis of DNA evidence.
When Judge John Michalski ordered DeJac, 44, released on her own recognizance, she broke down in tears.
Michalski's order was greeted with applause by the people gathered in the courtroom.
DeJac was convicted in 1994 of second-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Crystallin Girard, on Feb. 14, 1993, whom she said she found dead after a night spent drinking and barhopping in Buffalo.
DeJac maintained that she had gotten into a fight with her then-boyfriend, Dennis Donahue, after trying to break up with him the night before, according to her police statement. She said that, when she called police on Feb. 13 to complain that Donahue would not leave her home, he slapped the phone away from her.
After that, Donahue followed DeJac to several bars, and their conversation eventually turned violent, according to court documents.
Andrew LoTempio, DeJac's lawyer, told CourtTVnews.com that Donahue spent the night "stalking" DeJac, trying to force her to talk to him. DeJac told police that one day before her daughter's murder Donahue had an argument with the girl.
DeJac also told detectives that Donahue became violent that night when she refused to speak to him. She said he pulled a pocketknife on a man with whom she was flirting.
When DeJac checked on Crystallin Girard at about 5 a.m. on Feb. 14 before leaving for the home of a man she had met that night, the girl was alive, DeJac told police.
But when she returned home shortly before noon, she said she found the outside kitchen door open and her daughter naked and dead in her bedroom.
LoTempio said he always believed Donahue killed Crystallin, but he didn't get the break he needed until September, when he saw a news report that Donahue had been arrested in the slaying of another Buffalo woman he had dated.
Because of the similarities in the killings, LoTempio immediately asked the Buffalo cold case squad to reexamine the evidence in Crystallin's murder.
DNA tests — which were not available in 1994, when DeJac was tried — found a man's DNA in blood smears on the wall and bedding in Crystallin's bedroom. DNA was also found inside her vagina.
Though cold-case detectives now say they believe Donahue is responsible for the murder, he cannot be charged because he received immunity for his testimony against DeJac.
Much of the prosecution's case against DeJac focused on the testimony of neighbors who portrayed her as a promiscuous woman and bad mother who often left her child alone.
"She's not going to win the Good Housekeeping seal of approval or mother of the year, but that doesn't make her a killer," LoTempio said.
Erie County Prosecutor Frank Clark said he plans to retry DeJac on a charge of second-degree manslaughter. If DeJac is convicted, she would not return to prison, because she has already served the maximum sentence for that charge.
"The question of guilt or innocence hasn't been answered," Clark said during a press conference Wednesday. "That's why we have trials."
LoTempio said he believes a new jury would find her not guilty based on the new evidence. He added that, although DeJac could plead guilty to avoid another trial, she won't do that.
"She wants vindication. She wants someone to say she didn't do this," LoTempio said. "But if she loses, she's in no better or worse shape than she is now, because she can't go back to jail."
After leaving the courthouse Wednesday, DeJac told reporters she planned to visit her daughter's grave.
She also will need to reconnect with her two sons, who were born during her first year in prison, and the rest of her family. She has never met her grandchildren or her first son's wife.
"I just want to go and be with my family and try to make up for some of the time that was lost," she said.
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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Buffmaster
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Re: Wrongfully convicted of a crime thread
Chicago to pay $20M in torture case
CHICAGO - The city has agreed to pay nearly $20 million to settle lawsuits filed by four former death row inmates who claimed they were tortured by Chicago police and wrongly convicted, an alderman said Friday.
Alderman Ed Smith hoped the settlement would help improve relations between police and residents, particularly the black community.
The deal involving the actions of former Lt. Jon Burge and his officers means "the city has stepped up to try to amend what a bad police commander did to the general public," Smith said.
"To bring this thing to fruition says to the general public that mistakes were made, and we should try to clear it up and start trying to heal."
The settlements still must be approved by the City Council's finance committee, which Smith expected to happen Monday.
"This represents a positive step moving forward in building and restoring community relations with the public that we serve," said Monique Bond, spokeswoman for a Chicago Police Department.
The four inmates — Aaron Patterson, Leroy Orange, Stanley Howard and Madison Hobley — were part of a story that made international headlines in January 2003 when then-Gov. George Ryan pardoned them and commuted the sentences of every death row inmate in the state in a stinging rebuke of capital punishment.
Since then, their accounts and those of more alleged victims of torture from Burge and others have dogged the city.
Last year, two special prosecutors released a 300-page report that nearly 200 black men were tortured in police interrogation rooms in the 1970s and 1980s.
"There should be indictments and prosecutions of Burge and his men for obstruction of justice, perjury and conspiracy," said Flint Taylor, Orange's attorney. He called for hearings for the 25-30 black men imprisoned after allegedly being tortured into confessions of crimes they didn't commit.
The $19.8 million settlement calls for Hobley to receive $7.5 million, Orange $5.5 million, Patterson $5 million and Howard $1.8 million, Smith said.
But Hobley has been identified as a subject of a federal arson and murder investigation. He will receive $1 million when the settlement is approved and the other $6.5 million at the end of 2009 if he has not been indicted, Smith said.
Hobley and Orange have been out of custody since Ryan ordered them pardoned. Howard remained in prison on unrelated charges. Patterson was also released, but in August was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after being convicted of drug and weapon charges.
Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city's law department, did not immediately return calls for comment on Friday.
CHICAGO - The city has agreed to pay nearly $20 million to settle lawsuits filed by four former death row inmates who claimed they were tortured by Chicago police and wrongly convicted, an alderman said Friday.
Alderman Ed Smith hoped the settlement would help improve relations between police and residents, particularly the black community.
The deal involving the actions of former Lt. Jon Burge and his officers means "the city has stepped up to try to amend what a bad police commander did to the general public," Smith said.
"To bring this thing to fruition says to the general public that mistakes were made, and we should try to clear it up and start trying to heal."
The settlements still must be approved by the City Council's finance committee, which Smith expected to happen Monday.
"This represents a positive step moving forward in building and restoring community relations with the public that we serve," said Monique Bond, spokeswoman for a Chicago Police Department.
The four inmates — Aaron Patterson, Leroy Orange, Stanley Howard and Madison Hobley — were part of a story that made international headlines in January 2003 when then-Gov. George Ryan pardoned them and commuted the sentences of every death row inmate in the state in a stinging rebuke of capital punishment.
Since then, their accounts and those of more alleged victims of torture from Burge and others have dogged the city.
Last year, two special prosecutors released a 300-page report that nearly 200 black men were tortured in police interrogation rooms in the 1970s and 1980s.
"There should be indictments and prosecutions of Burge and his men for obstruction of justice, perjury and conspiracy," said Flint Taylor, Orange's attorney. He called for hearings for the 25-30 black men imprisoned after allegedly being tortured into confessions of crimes they didn't commit.
The $19.8 million settlement calls for Hobley to receive $7.5 million, Orange $5.5 million, Patterson $5 million and Howard $1.8 million, Smith said.
But Hobley has been identified as a subject of a federal arson and murder investigation. He will receive $1 million when the settlement is approved and the other $6.5 million at the end of 2009 if he has not been indicted, Smith said.
Hobley and Orange have been out of custody since Ryan ordered them pardoned. Howard remained in prison on unrelated charges. Patterson was also released, but in August was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after being convicted of drug and weapon charges.
Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city's law department, did not immediately return calls for comment on Friday.
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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Buffmaster
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Re: Wrongfully convicted of a crime thread
First for a woman: DNA frees mother convicted of killing daughter
For 13 years, Lynn DeJac insisted she did not strangle and kill her 13-year-old daughter, even though a jury found her guilty.
On Wednesday, DeJac walked out of an Erie County, N.Y., courthouse a free woman after a judge overturned her conviction based on new DNA evidence implicating her former boyfriend in the killing.
A judge's decision to vacate the verdict and order a new trial made her the first woman in the U.S. to have a murder conviction overturned on the basis of DNA evidence.
When Judge John Michalski ordered DeJac, 44, released on her own recognizance, she broke down in tears.
Michalski's order was greeted with applause by the people gathered in the courtroom.
DeJac was convicted in 1994 of second-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Crystallin Girard, on Feb. 14, 1993, whom she said she found dead after a night spent drinking and barhopping in Buffalo.
DeJac maintained that she had gotten into a fight with her then-boyfriend, Dennis Donahue, after trying to break up with him the night before, according to her police statement. She said that, when she called police on Feb. 13 to complain that Donahue would not leave her home, he slapped the phone away from her.
After that, Donahue followed DeJac to several bars, and their conversation eventually turned violent, according to court documents.
Andrew LoTempio, DeJac's lawyer, told CourtTVnews.com that Donahue spent the night "stalking" DeJac, trying to force her to talk to him. DeJac told police that one day before her daughter's murder Donahue had an argument with the girl.
DeJac also told detectives that Donahue became violent that night when she refused to speak to him. She said he pulled a pocketknife on a man with whom she was flirting.
When DeJac checked on Crystallin Girard at about 5 a.m. on Feb. 14 before leaving for the home of a man she had met that night, the girl was alive, DeJac told police.
But when she returned home shortly before noon, she said she found the outside kitchen door open and her daughter naked and dead in her bedroom.
LoTempio said he always believed Donahue killed Crystallin, but he didn't get the break he needed until September, when he saw a news report that Donahue had been arrested in the slaying of another Buffalo woman he had dated.
Because of the similarities in the killings, LoTempio immediately asked the Buffalo cold case squad to reexamine the evidence in Crystallin's murder.
DNA tests — which were not available in 1994, when DeJac was tried — found a man's DNA in blood smears on the wall and bedding in Crystallin's bedroom. DNA was also found inside her vagina.
Though cold-case detectives now say they believe Donahue is responsible for the murder, he cannot be charged because he received immunity for his testimony against DeJac.
Much of the prosecution's case against DeJac focused on the testimony of neighbors who portrayed her as a promiscuous woman and bad mother who often left her child alone.
"She's not going to win the Good Housekeeping seal of approval or mother of the year, but that doesn't make her a killer," LoTempio said.
Erie County Prosecutor Frank Clark said he plans to retry DeJac on a charge of second-degree manslaughter. If DeJac is convicted, she would not return to prison, because she has already served the maximum sentence for that charge.
"The question of guilt or innocence hasn't been answered," Clark said during a press conference Wednesday. "That's why we have trials."
LoTempio said he believes a new jury would find her not guilty based on the new evidence. He added that, although DeJac could plead guilty to avoid another trial, she won't do that.
"She wants vindication. She wants someone to say she didn't do this," LoTempio said. "But if she loses, she's in no better or worse shape than she is now, because she can't go back to jail."
After leaving the courthouse Wednesday, DeJac told reporters she planned to visit her daughter's grave.
She also will need to reconnect with her two sons, who were born during her first year in prison, and the rest of her family. She has never met her grandchildren or her first son's wife.
"I just want to go and be with my family and try to make up for some of the time that was lost," she said.
For 13 years, Lynn DeJac insisted she did not strangle and kill her 13-year-old daughter, even though a jury found her guilty.
On Wednesday, DeJac walked out of an Erie County, N.Y., courthouse a free woman after a judge overturned her conviction based on new DNA evidence implicating her former boyfriend in the killing.
A judge's decision to vacate the verdict and order a new trial made her the first woman in the U.S. to have a murder conviction overturned on the basis of DNA evidence.
When Judge John Michalski ordered DeJac, 44, released on her own recognizance, she broke down in tears.
Michalski's order was greeted with applause by the people gathered in the courtroom.
DeJac was convicted in 1994 of second-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Crystallin Girard, on Feb. 14, 1993, whom she said she found dead after a night spent drinking and barhopping in Buffalo.
DeJac maintained that she had gotten into a fight with her then-boyfriend, Dennis Donahue, after trying to break up with him the night before, according to her police statement. She said that, when she called police on Feb. 13 to complain that Donahue would not leave her home, he slapped the phone away from her.
After that, Donahue followed DeJac to several bars, and their conversation eventually turned violent, according to court documents.
Andrew LoTempio, DeJac's lawyer, told CourtTVnews.com that Donahue spent the night "stalking" DeJac, trying to force her to talk to him. DeJac told police that one day before her daughter's murder Donahue had an argument with the girl.
DeJac also told detectives that Donahue became violent that night when she refused to speak to him. She said he pulled a pocketknife on a man with whom she was flirting.
When DeJac checked on Crystallin Girard at about 5 a.m. on Feb. 14 before leaving for the home of a man she had met that night, the girl was alive, DeJac told police.
But when she returned home shortly before noon, she said she found the outside kitchen door open and her daughter naked and dead in her bedroom.
LoTempio said he always believed Donahue killed Crystallin, but he didn't get the break he needed until September, when he saw a news report that Donahue had been arrested in the slaying of another Buffalo woman he had dated.
Because of the similarities in the killings, LoTempio immediately asked the Buffalo cold case squad to reexamine the evidence in Crystallin's murder.
DNA tests — which were not available in 1994, when DeJac was tried — found a man's DNA in blood smears on the wall and bedding in Crystallin's bedroom. DNA was also found inside her vagina.
Though cold-case detectives now say they believe Donahue is responsible for the murder, he cannot be charged because he received immunity for his testimony against DeJac.
Much of the prosecution's case against DeJac focused on the testimony of neighbors who portrayed her as a promiscuous woman and bad mother who often left her child alone.
"She's not going to win the Good Housekeeping seal of approval or mother of the year, but that doesn't make her a killer," LoTempio said.
Erie County Prosecutor Frank Clark said he plans to retry DeJac on a charge of second-degree manslaughter. If DeJac is convicted, she would not return to prison, because she has already served the maximum sentence for that charge.
"The question of guilt or innocence hasn't been answered," Clark said during a press conference Wednesday. "That's why we have trials."
LoTempio said he believes a new jury would find her not guilty based on the new evidence. He added that, although DeJac could plead guilty to avoid another trial, she won't do that.
"She wants vindication. She wants someone to say she didn't do this," LoTempio said. "But if she loses, she's in no better or worse shape than she is now, because she can't go back to jail."
After leaving the courthouse Wednesday, DeJac told reporters she planned to visit her daughter's grave.
She also will need to reconnect with her two sons, who were born during her first year in prison, and the rest of her family. She has never met her grandchildren or her first son's wife.
"I just want to go and be with my family and try to make up for some of the time that was lost," she said.
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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Buffmaster
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Re: Wrongfully convicted of a crime thread
Georgia inmate cleared of 1979 rape by DNA leaves prison
ATLANTA (AP) — A man enjoyed freedom Tuesday after a DNA test proved he did not commit a 1979 rape. John Jerome White, 48, left Macon State Prison on Monday evening.
"I'm just thankful that this is behind me," White said at a news conference Tuesday morning with the Georgia Innocence Project, which had worked to free him.
"When I first started out, I wondered why this happened to me," he said, breaking into tears. "I just saw it as something that had to happen because I wasn't living a moral life."
The investigation led to the arrest Tuesday of James Edward Parham, 54, of Manchester, who was on the state's Sex Offender Registry for a 1985 rape conviction, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said. He was being held in the Meriwether County jail on charges of rape, aggravated assault, burglary and robbery.
A sheriff's office employee declined to say whether Parham had an attorney, and there was no immediate response from the public defender's office. There was no answer on a telephone listed at the address given for Parham in a GBI news releases.
White is the seventh Georgia convict to be cleared by DNA evidence, said Aimee Maxwell, director of the Atlanta-based Georgia Innocence Project. In every case, the men were wrongly convicted on eyewitness accounts.
"This case does point out the fallibility of eyewitness identification," Maxwell said.
White was convicted in 1980 of breaking into a 74-year-old woman's home and raping and robbing her. The woman has since died.
He was sentenced to life in prison, then was paroled in 1990. White was sent back to prison for 2 1/2 years on a drug violation in 1993. A 1997 robbery charge led to a conviction, a seven-year sentence and a requirement that he return to serving his life sentence for the rape conviction.
At the urging of the Georgia Innocence Project, authorities tested DNA from hairs found at the scene of the 1979 rape, using tests that weren't available at the time.
District Attorney Peter Skandalakis of the Coweta Judicial District said authorities found that the DNA matched DNA on file in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation database, leading to an investigation of a new suspect. No arrests have been made yet, the GBI says.
Maxwell said her organization is working with state lawmakers and authorities to require all law enforcement agencies to develop and follow clearly written procedures for doing an eyewitness identification with a victim, Maxwell said. The organization says 82 percent of the 355 Georgia law enforcement agencies surveyed do not have any type of written eyewitness standards.
White was joined at the news conference by his wife, three sisters and his mother, Florence White.
"When they called to tell me that he was getting out, I didn't know whether to shout, cry or holler," said his mother, who lives in Meriwether County. "I'm so glad to have him back home one more time before I leave this world."
In North Carolina, meanwhile, charges were dropped Tuesday against a Charlotte man who spent seven years on death row in the killing of a jeweler.
Jonathan Hoffman had been convicted of killing 35-year-old Danny Cook at Cook's Marshville store in 1995, but he won a new trial in 2004.
Union County District Attorney John Snyder said he dismissed charges because two witnesses have died and the prosecution's star witness, Hoffman's cousin, eventually recanted his testimony.
"What you had at the first trial is just not there," Snyder said.
Defense attorney Joseph Cheshire said it wasn't clear when Hoffman would be released.
Hoffman was in disbelief when told about the dropped charges, Cheshire said.
"He just couldn't believe it," Cheshire said. "He was surprised something so dramatic in his life could happen in such a low-key way."
ATLANTA (AP) — A man enjoyed freedom Tuesday after a DNA test proved he did not commit a 1979 rape. John Jerome White, 48, left Macon State Prison on Monday evening.
"I'm just thankful that this is behind me," White said at a news conference Tuesday morning with the Georgia Innocence Project, which had worked to free him.
"When I first started out, I wondered why this happened to me," he said, breaking into tears. "I just saw it as something that had to happen because I wasn't living a moral life."
The investigation led to the arrest Tuesday of James Edward Parham, 54, of Manchester, who was on the state's Sex Offender Registry for a 1985 rape conviction, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said. He was being held in the Meriwether County jail on charges of rape, aggravated assault, burglary and robbery.
A sheriff's office employee declined to say whether Parham had an attorney, and there was no immediate response from the public defender's office. There was no answer on a telephone listed at the address given for Parham in a GBI news releases.
White is the seventh Georgia convict to be cleared by DNA evidence, said Aimee Maxwell, director of the Atlanta-based Georgia Innocence Project. In every case, the men were wrongly convicted on eyewitness accounts.
"This case does point out the fallibility of eyewitness identification," Maxwell said.
White was convicted in 1980 of breaking into a 74-year-old woman's home and raping and robbing her. The woman has since died.
He was sentenced to life in prison, then was paroled in 1990. White was sent back to prison for 2 1/2 years on a drug violation in 1993. A 1997 robbery charge led to a conviction, a seven-year sentence and a requirement that he return to serving his life sentence for the rape conviction.
At the urging of the Georgia Innocence Project, authorities tested DNA from hairs found at the scene of the 1979 rape, using tests that weren't available at the time.
District Attorney Peter Skandalakis of the Coweta Judicial District said authorities found that the DNA matched DNA on file in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation database, leading to an investigation of a new suspect. No arrests have been made yet, the GBI says.
Maxwell said her organization is working with state lawmakers and authorities to require all law enforcement agencies to develop and follow clearly written procedures for doing an eyewitness identification with a victim, Maxwell said. The organization says 82 percent of the 355 Georgia law enforcement agencies surveyed do not have any type of written eyewitness standards.
White was joined at the news conference by his wife, three sisters and his mother, Florence White.
"When they called to tell me that he was getting out, I didn't know whether to shout, cry or holler," said his mother, who lives in Meriwether County. "I'm so glad to have him back home one more time before I leave this world."
In North Carolina, meanwhile, charges were dropped Tuesday against a Charlotte man who spent seven years on death row in the killing of a jeweler.
Jonathan Hoffman had been convicted of killing 35-year-old Danny Cook at Cook's Marshville store in 1995, but he won a new trial in 2004.
Union County District Attorney John Snyder said he dismissed charges because two witnesses have died and the prosecution's star witness, Hoffman's cousin, eventually recanted his testimony.
"What you had at the first trial is just not there," Snyder said.
Defense attorney Joseph Cheshire said it wasn't clear when Hoffman would be released.
Hoffman was in disbelief when told about the dropped charges, Cheshire said.
"He just couldn't believe it," Cheshire said. "He was surprised something so dramatic in his life could happen in such a low-key way."
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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Buffmaster
- Posts: 3570
- Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 11:37 am
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Re: Wrongfully convicted of a crime thread
Texas man freed after 26 years in prison
DALLAS - Three times during his nearly 27 years in prison, Charles Chatman went before a parole board and refused to admit he was a rapist. His steadfastness was vindicated Thursday, when a judge released him because of new DNA evidence showing he indeed wasn't. The release of Chatman, 47, added to Dallas County's nationally unmatched number of wrongfully convicted inmates.
"Every time I'd go to parole, they'd want a description of the crime or my version of the crime," Chatman said. "I don't have a version of the crime. I never committed the crime. I never will admit to doing this crime that I know I didn't do."
District Judge John Creuzot, whom defense lawyers credited with shepherding Chatman's case for exoneration through the legal system, recommended that Texas' Court of Criminal Appeals find Chatman not guilty. With several relatives dabbing at their eyes with tissues and cheering, Chatman was released.
"I really can't tell you how I feel," said his aunt, Ethel Barley. "But I can tell you it is a different feeling than I have had in a long time, just to be holding his own hand."
Before the crime is officially cleared from Chatman's record, the appeals court must accept the recommendation or the governor must grant a pardon. Either step is considered a formality after Creuzot's ruling.
Chatman became the 15th inmate from Dallas County since 2001 to be freed by DNA testing. He served more time than any of the other inmates, four of whom were in court Thursday to show their support.
Dallas has freed more inmates after DNA testing than any other county nationwide, said Natalie Roetzel of the Innocence Project of Texas. Texas leads the country in prisoners freed by DNA testing, releasing at least 30 wrongfully convicted inmates since 2001, according to the Innocence Project.
One of the biggest reasons for the large number of exonerations is the crime lab used by Dallas County, which accounts for about half the state's DNA cases. Unlike many jurisdictions, the lab used by police and prosecutors retains biological evidence, meaning DNA testing is a viable option for decades-old crimes.
District Attorney Craig Watkins also attributes the exonerations to a past culture of overly aggressive prosecutors seeking convictions at any cost. Watkins has started a program in which law students, supervised by the Innocence Project of Texas, are reviewing about 450 cases in which convicts have requested DNA testing to prove their innocence.
"It is time we stop kidding ourselves in believing that what happened in Dallas is somehow unique," said Jeff Blackburn, the founder of the Innocence Project of Texas. "What happened in Dallas is common. This is Texas."
The hearing attracted a standing-room-only crowd that included Watkins, who was greeted warmly by two wrongly convicted Dallas men who have since won their freedom. Also there was state Rep. Terri Hodge, a member of the criminal jurisprudence committee, who promised unspecified reforms when the Legislature convenes in 2009.
Chatman was 20 when the victim, a young woman in her 20s, picked him from a lineup. Chatman said he lived five houses down from the victim for 13 years but never knew her.
She identified him in court as the attacker, and serology tests showed that the type of blood found at the crime scene matched that of Chatman — along with 40 percent of other black males.
Chatman said he was working at the time of the assault, an alibi supported by his sister, who was also his employer. Nevertheless, Chatman was convicted of aggravated sexual assault in 1981 and sentenced to 99 years in prison.
Chatman said he believes his race led to his arrest and conviction. The jury, he said, had one black member.
"I was convicted because a black man committed a crime against a white woman," Chatman said. "And I was available."
Chatman said he wants to work with the Innocence Project of Texas to support other people exonerated or wrongly convicted.
"I believe that there are hundreds, and I know of two or three personally that very well could be sitting in this seat if they had the support and they had the backing that I have," Chatman said. "My No. 1 interest is trying to help people who have been in the situation I am in."
DALLAS - Three times during his nearly 27 years in prison, Charles Chatman went before a parole board and refused to admit he was a rapist. His steadfastness was vindicated Thursday, when a judge released him because of new DNA evidence showing he indeed wasn't. The release of Chatman, 47, added to Dallas County's nationally unmatched number of wrongfully convicted inmates.
"Every time I'd go to parole, they'd want a description of the crime or my version of the crime," Chatman said. "I don't have a version of the crime. I never committed the crime. I never will admit to doing this crime that I know I didn't do."
District Judge John Creuzot, whom defense lawyers credited with shepherding Chatman's case for exoneration through the legal system, recommended that Texas' Court of Criminal Appeals find Chatman not guilty. With several relatives dabbing at their eyes with tissues and cheering, Chatman was released.
"I really can't tell you how I feel," said his aunt, Ethel Barley. "But I can tell you it is a different feeling than I have had in a long time, just to be holding his own hand."
Before the crime is officially cleared from Chatman's record, the appeals court must accept the recommendation or the governor must grant a pardon. Either step is considered a formality after Creuzot's ruling.
Chatman became the 15th inmate from Dallas County since 2001 to be freed by DNA testing. He served more time than any of the other inmates, four of whom were in court Thursday to show their support.
Dallas has freed more inmates after DNA testing than any other county nationwide, said Natalie Roetzel of the Innocence Project of Texas. Texas leads the country in prisoners freed by DNA testing, releasing at least 30 wrongfully convicted inmates since 2001, according to the Innocence Project.
One of the biggest reasons for the large number of exonerations is the crime lab used by Dallas County, which accounts for about half the state's DNA cases. Unlike many jurisdictions, the lab used by police and prosecutors retains biological evidence, meaning DNA testing is a viable option for decades-old crimes.
District Attorney Craig Watkins also attributes the exonerations to a past culture of overly aggressive prosecutors seeking convictions at any cost. Watkins has started a program in which law students, supervised by the Innocence Project of Texas, are reviewing about 450 cases in which convicts have requested DNA testing to prove their innocence.
"It is time we stop kidding ourselves in believing that what happened in Dallas is somehow unique," said Jeff Blackburn, the founder of the Innocence Project of Texas. "What happened in Dallas is common. This is Texas."
The hearing attracted a standing-room-only crowd that included Watkins, who was greeted warmly by two wrongly convicted Dallas men who have since won their freedom. Also there was state Rep. Terri Hodge, a member of the criminal jurisprudence committee, who promised unspecified reforms when the Legislature convenes in 2009.
Chatman was 20 when the victim, a young woman in her 20s, picked him from a lineup. Chatman said he lived five houses down from the victim for 13 years but never knew her.
She identified him in court as the attacker, and serology tests showed that the type of blood found at the crime scene matched that of Chatman — along with 40 percent of other black males.
Chatman said he was working at the time of the assault, an alibi supported by his sister, who was also his employer. Nevertheless, Chatman was convicted of aggravated sexual assault in 1981 and sentenced to 99 years in prison.
Chatman said he believes his race led to his arrest and conviction. The jury, he said, had one black member.
"I was convicted because a black man committed a crime against a white woman," Chatman said. "And I was available."
Chatman said he wants to work with the Innocence Project of Texas to support other people exonerated or wrongly convicted.
"I believe that there are hundreds, and I know of two or three personally that very well could be sitting in this seat if they had the support and they had the backing that I have," Chatman said. "My No. 1 interest is trying to help people who have been in the situation I am in."
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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